Still not convinced?

Still moping about, uninspired and full of self-doubt?

Remember as you watch this (it’s shorter than the one the other day), with physical training, you can probably do more than you think you can..

Be inspired.

Feeling Uninspired? Watch this …

So, you think life has thrown it’s worst at you …

… you think there’s nothing left for you to do …

…you think you can’t make a difference? Think you could never achieve that goal or run that marathon or get up those stairs without huffing and puffing?

Got some time? Check this out:

You can always do more than you think you can.

Cleansing our sacrifice

Exodus 28:36, 38

“You shall also make a plate of pure gold and shall engrave on it … ‘Holy to the LORD’ … And it shall be on Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts” (NASB)

At Easter time, we remember Resurrection Sunday as the day on which the Lord, Jesus Christ, rose from the dead — by the power of God (Acts 2:24) the Father (Romans 6:4), Son (John 2:19-21) and Spirit (Romans 8:11).

We often remember that redemption came through Jesus Christ — we remember that it was through no effort of our own that we have been redeemed.  As with the Passover celebration of Israel, we remember that it was only through the power of God in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we could become children of God.

But something that often passes us by is this: After we are redeemed, there is no gift that we can bring to God which is holy enough for Him.  You see, once we become part of the redeemed of God, we can start thinking that we need to keep bringing sacrifices to God, like Israel, in order to “keep God at bay” — in order to keep our status as “the approved of God”. 

New Posts …

I’ve been away for a while.  Had a very busy month or so and a stressed Stuart on the end of it all.  I apologise to those of you who wrote some comments to a couple of posts … but only just got “approved”. 

I hope you’re having a great break over Easter.  I’m up at my sister’s in country Victoria for a little while but back to Melbourne this week.

Blessings,

Stumac.

Passover Symbols

In the book of Exodus we read of the mighty hand of Yhwh (God) saving His people from their bondage and slavery to Egypt. It was a slavery of working for someone else at no gain to themselves. Yhwh saved them.

In Exodus 12, we read how Yahwh redeemed the Israelites (bought them back to their rightful place as His free people), and specifically, he redeemed the firstborn son of all the Israelites.  He redeemed the firstborn of the sons and livestock of Israel. Had they not had the blood of the lamb over the doorpost of their house, Yhwh would have allowed the destroyer to kill their firstborn son.

Bad brain day

Oh dear.  This morning’s lecturing was brought to you by Bad Brain Day.  I seriously had some issues.  For those of you who don’t know, I lecture at the Australian College of Health and Fitness (aka Melbourne Institute of Massage).  At the moment we’re teaching an intensive in the Cert III&IV in Fitness.  Yesterday we started the Exercise Science module for Personal Trainers (Cert IV in Fitness).

Anyway, today we looked at bony landmarks on the skeleton — all that means is the weird bits on bones that stick out all over the place: ridges, round bumps, flat bumps, holes etc.  Many of them are places where muscles attach, others are places where the bone joins other bones and others are places for blood vessels and nerves to run through.

I haven’t had much sleep lately and I had a lot of trouble getting my brain into gear.  I just couldn’t think of examples of certain types of landmarks.  It was most frustrating.

Then we moved on to muscle physiology (what a muscle’s made of and how it functions) — well, I kept mucking that one up, too.

Anyway, long story short: don’t try to lecture on too little sleep.

Waves of Divinity

Here’s what I see:

A beautiful afternoon with the sun lowering in the sky. Panning out before me is a clean, wild beach surrounded by rocks and bushland. The sand is fine and white and the water varying shades of blue-white. To my left are a number of rocks, and against them move the relentless blows of the ocean. Wave upon wave.

And this, I think, is a picture of my God moving through eternity. It is the relentless love of each person of the Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) for each other and their ceaseless pursuit of humanity. Wave upon wave reveals the boundless energy God has for His creation and His unwillingness to yield simply because humanity is resistant to Him. He continues to love us and offer His love simply because it is in His very being to do so.

 

Historic battles

I was reading Kenneth Scott Latourette’s “Expansion of Christianity, Volume 1″ the other night. It’s crazy how much fighting went on during the early centuries of the Christian church; and all over matters of theology.

It’s like there was no sense of the love of Jesus Christ, their Lord, in the midst of all their “theologising”. It’s as if relationship has a small part (if any) to play compared to expounding the “truth”.

Cast

I have just returned from seeing a new podiatrist; getting new orthotics.

In the past, I’ve never had a cast made of my foot, even though I’ve had two sets of orthotics to date.  Today, however, I had a cast made.  This will be sent off to the orthotic-making people who will mould a plastic cast fit for a king (or at least, fit for a Stuart).  I wonder how much money it actually costs to produce them:  it will cost me a small fortune to purchase them …

I had toyed with the idea of making my own, to save money, but purchasing products was an issue.  I played with the idea of moulding some from leather, but the leather was not hard enough to resist my whole body weight, even after a couple of trials using hot and cold water combinations.  So, now I’ve given in to the pressure and am getting them professionally made.

Hopefully, it will be the last pair I need to get made.  2008 will be (or at least, this is the plan) the year of correcting foot, hip and shoulder issues as much as possible.  And besides, I may have worked out how to make orthotics from leather by the time I need a new pair!

So, stay tuned and I’ll let you know how the orthotic adventure goes.

Music

I love how powerful music can be. Something about it can reach deep into my soul and move me in emotionally rich ways.

Wander down to your local town library and see if you can borrow out any of these (included are some of my insights into the pieces. By no means exhaustive):

• The Lord of the Rings — The Fellowship of the Ring
  • Tr. 1: Mystery, light, dark, philosophy, the things that make us tick.
  • Tr. 2: Great for sunshiny good feelings
  • Tr. 9&10: Aahh, the mystery & pain of the Elves mingled with the memories of friends, home and brighter days…
  • Tr. 13: Carries you from the excitement of high adventure to gut wrenching tears and tragedy.